MMA News

Tom Taylor - November 20, 2018

The next UFC event on the calendar is UFC Beijing, which goes down this Saturday morning in Beijing, China. This UFC Beijing card will be headlined by a heavyweight rematch between top contender Curtis Blaydes and former title challenger Francis Ngannou.

Tom Taylor - November 20, 2018

UFC President Dana White has not been shy about his disdain for former ONE Championship and Bellator welterweight champion Ben Askren in the past. Yet Chael Sonnen believes the UFC President will come to love the American wrestler, who has finally joined the UFC roster. In fact, he thinks Askren is likely to become White’s favorite fighter.

Tom Taylor - November 20, 2018

Last Saturday night, on the undercard of UFC Argentina, American lightweight Devin Powell stepped into the cage with Peru’s Jesus Pinedo. In the end, Powell lost this fight by unanimous decision. Apparently, however, this defeat was the least of his worries. Mid-way through the second round, Powell says he sustained a hematoma inside his eye. This caused his eye to fill up with blood, rendering him temporarily blind in that eye.

Tom Taylor - November 20, 2018

Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz’s trilogy fight is just around the corner. The fight, which is being promoted by Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions, goes down this Saturday, November 24. As this trilogy fight between the two MMA legends looms on the horizon, many members of the MMA community are quite excited. Others, however, would prefer to see Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz sticking to their retirement plans.

Cole Shelton - November 20, 2018

The UFC is continuing its push into the Chinese market in a big way. The promotion will be opening a brand new UFC Performance Institute in Shanghai, China. It will reportedly be more than 93,000 square feet and will cost the promotion a whopping $13 million. However, this PI will be quite different from the one that’s been established in Las Vegas. In Las Vegas, the PI is for UFC athletes to recover, train and help with their weight cutting and nutrition. However, the one in Shanghai will primarily be about developing Asian MMA fighters, with the hope that the fighters will then sign with promotion. The promotion will reportedly offer these fighters ‘scholarships’ which will allow them to train at the PI.

Tom Taylor - November 20, 2018

Over the weekend, TMZ reported that UFC strawweight Rachael Ostovich had been attacked by “someone close to her.” According to a report from MMA Fighting, The Honolulu Police Department has now opened an assault investigation into this attack.

Tom Taylor - November 20, 2018

Last Saturday night, on the main card of UFC Argentina, long-time strawweight contender Cynthia Calvillo rebounded from her first pro loss and an unfortunate marijuana-related suspension with a first-round submission defeat of Poliana Botelho. At a glance, it was the perfect way to rebound from an undeniably tough year. Unfortunately, Calvillo missed weight for the fight, which has caused significant outrage among the sport’s often unforgiving fans. Speaking on The MMA Hour on Monday, Cynthia Calvillo responded to this backlash from fans. She says she feels the weigh-in miss has diminished her performances, and that she’s eager to move on with her next fight.

Tom Taylor - November 20, 2018

UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has a lot of options on the table for his next fight. There’s a rematch with Conor McGregor. There’s a long awaited fight with top-contender Tony Ferguson, and matchups with other top contenders like Dustin Poirier or Kevin Lee.  Of all the options available to Khabib Nurmagomedov, however, there is one that his father Abdulmanap likes best of all: a fight with former UFC welterweight and middleweight champ Georges St-Pierre.

Drake Riggs - November 19, 2018

Going head to head with the UFC? “No problem,” says Bellator MMA as UFC 233 and Bellator 214 both take place on January 26 in Los Angeles. In the main event for Bellator 214, the new heavyweight champion will be decided as the heavyweight title Grand Prix comes to a close with Fedor Emelianenko taking on the light heavyweight champion, Ryan Bader.

Cole Shelton - November 19, 2018

Bellator welterweight champion Rory MacDonald had a chance to make history in his last time out. At Bellator 206, MacDonald was moving up to the middleweight division to take on middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi. The ‘Red King’ was looking to be the first ever dual-division champion in Bellator history. Ultimately, the Canadian failed to do that in what was a fairly dominant win for Mousasi.

Drake Riggs - November 19, 2018

Professional combat sports athlete, former Australian army officer in training, now reality TV star? UFC featherweight and former Invicta FC champion, Megan Anderson is just continuing to add to her resume.

Mike Straus - November 19, 2018

Everyone loves a good comeback story and perhaps no MMA fighter has a more inspirational one than “The Crippler” Cris Leben. An original cast member on season one of The Ultimate Fighter, Leben recently came out of retirement to knock out Phil Baroni in the World Bare Knuckle Fighting Federation’s (WBKFF) inaugural event.

Tom Taylor - November 19, 2018

The UFC had a very, very difficult time locking down a main event for UFC 230, which went down earlier this month in New York City’s famous Madison Square Garden. While the card’s headlining spot was ultimately filled by a heavyweight title fight between champ Daniel Cormier and challenger Derrick Lewis, there were reportedly also discussions of a welterweight main event between interim champ Colby Covington and Nick Diaz. While Colby Covington says he would have been willing to fight Nick Diaz in the UFC 230 main event, the fight never came together. And now he says Diaz has missed his chance.

Tom Taylor - November 19, 2018

Back in August, streaking UFC lightweight contender James Vick stepped into the cage with former World Series of Fighting lightweight champ Justin Gaethje. For Vick, this bout represented an opportunity to vault into UFC lightweight title contention. Unfortunately, however, he was caught by a thunderous punch in the first round, and instead left the Octagon with his win-streak derailed. Looking back on this loss to Gaethje, James Vick admits it’s been a tough one to swallow.

Tom Taylor - November 19, 2018

The mysterious RIZIN 14 showdown between undefeated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather and 20-year-old kickboxing sensation Tenshin Nasukawa is apparently back on. According to Mayweather, however, it will merely be a boxing exhibition… just three, three-minute rounds of “moving around” for yet another mammoth payday.  While Floyd Mayweather seems to think this fight with Tenshin Nasukawa will be little more than a light sparring session, Bellator star and MMA analyst Chael Sonnen is imploring the pugilist to be a little more discerning.

James Lynch - November 19, 2018

You can scratch Israel Adesanya off the list of potential backup fighters for the Robert Whittaker vs. Kelvin Gastelum middleweight title fight at UFC 234. That’s according to Adesanya himself who told the New Zealand Herald that following a meeting with UFC President Dana White last week he’s not interested in taking that spot.

Tom Taylor - November 19, 2018

Conor McGregor’s desired rematch with reigning UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov could occur in the boxing ring. At least, that’s what Nurmagomedov’s father Abdulmanap says. Speaking to the Russian newspaper Izvestia this week, the Nurmagomedov patriarch shared his belief that his son is more than capable of hanging with Conor McGregor under the boxing ruleset, and that he’d like their potential rematch to occur between the ropes.

Tom Taylor - November 19, 2018

In the sport of MMA, there’s no victory celebration more tried and true than a fighter scaling the cage and throwing their arms up in triumph. We’ve seen countless fighters do so after big stoppage victories. Santiago Ponzinibbio did so just last weekend after knocking out Neil Magny in the UFC Argentina main event. Apparently, however, nailing this post-fight celebration is not as easy as it looks.